Living Room Study

1st Timothy 1

“As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, so that you may command certain people not to teach other doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies.  These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith.  Now the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.”  1 Timothy 1:3-5

are a growing number of churches, which have adopted a diminished view of “calling”.  That is to say, they don’t believe that God cares what you do with your life, as long as you’re not pursuing sin. I don’t understand how that theology is supported, Biblically.

When I read the Bible, the concept I see being reinforced is the theology of “calling”.  That is, God calls people personally to certain places, to minister to certain people with a certain message, for a certain amount of time.  If there was no, “calling” why would anyone suffer for the gospel?  We would simply avoid the uncomfortable, following the ministry path of least resistance.  Why suffer if God doesn’t care about the choices you make? 

God beckons us to a certain salvation from a certain hell.  He equips us with certain gifts, calls us to certain places, to deliver certain messages to certain people.  We labor with a certain hope that our work will be certainly completed by His Spirit.  “Calling” compels us to go.  Calling emboldens us to persevere, enduring hardship.  Calling ensures victory through the power of His Spirit. 

Let’s examine Timothy’s calling:

Certain place:  He was dispatched to Ephesus and told to stay there.

Certain people: Church leaders in Ephesus had strayed from Paul’s foundational teaching.

Certain message:  Timothy was to command the church leaders to get back on track

Certain hope:  With correct instruction, the church would develop loving hearts, good consciences, and sincere faith.

There is a story of a fashion designer, notorious for mending clothes backstage at her New York runway shows.  When asked why she didn’t assign the task to a junior designer, she smartly replied, “Because it’s my name on the tag.”

God cared enough to call us into salvation, and into His service.  We bear His name.  God cares about your choices…because His name is on your tag.  

Blessings.

Steve Wiggins